13 votes

A quick tip for those wanting a mobile solution (at least on Android)

Tags: mobile, app

I basically wanted a full screen, standalone version of the website on mobile but unfortunately Firefox's homescreen shortcuts simply open a new tab, header and all.

I found Anker on the Play Store which works perfectly. I wasn't able to find anything on F-Droid but I'm sure forking one of those Facebook wrappers would be rather trivial if anyone's up to it.

For the app icon you can get ~'s favicon here.

12 comments

  1. [9]
    efraimbart
    Link
    Any comments on Anker VS Hermit?

    Any comments on Anker VS Hermit?

    5 votes
    1. efraimbart
      Link Parent
      Just tried out Anker and it appears to be a lot more simplistic than Hermit. I like.

      Just tried out Anker and it appears to be a lot more simplistic than Hermit. I like.

      3 votes
    2. [7]
      Luna
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      I'm using Anker right now. Hermit auto-detects the icon, but not the notification bar color, and I can't look up hex codes on mobile. Not a very in depth analysis, but I think Anker does a good...

      I'm using Anker right now. Hermit auto-detects the icon, but not the notification bar color, and I can't look up hex codes on mobile. Not a very in depth analysis, but I think Anker does a good job, and looks slightly better since it properly detects the color and applied it to the navigation bar, and it works on all themes.

      Edit: switching the navigation bar color was working last night, but now it's broken. Weird.

      3 votes
      1. [6]
        geosmin
        Link Parent
        Does it theme the notification bar for you? Mine is always blue.

        Does it theme the notification bar for you? Mine is always blue.

        1 vote
        1. [5]
          Luna
          Link Parent
          Does switching to solarized light or white theme not change the color for you?

          Does switching to solarized light or white theme not change the color for you?

          1. [4]
            geosmin
            Link Parent
            Not of the status bar, no.

            Not of the status bar, no.

            1. [3]
              Luna
              Link Parent
              Are you using Hermit?

              Are you using Hermit?

              1. [2]
                geosmin
                Link Parent
                Anker

                Anker

                1. Luna
                  Link Parent
                  That's really odd. If I switch to solarized light or white theme, last night it was switching the notification bar to a white background, but now it doesn't.

                  That's really odd. If I switch to solarized light or white theme, last night it was switching the notification bar to a white background, but now it doesn't.

  2. geosmin
    (edited )
    Link
    Looks like I missed that one, definitely seems like it offers a ton of features which I think is probably great for a lot of websites but maybe not so useful here. I'll give it a go and report...

    Looks like I missed that one, definitely seems like it offers a ton of features which I think is probably great for a lot of websites but maybe not so useful here.

    I'll give it a go and report back!

    Edit: At least for Tilde I definitely prefer Anker, though I'm a less is more kind of person. As far as useful Hermit features it automatically offers to grab the website icon for you which is nice, has adjustable text size, as well as back and forward buttons. All the other features were kind of moot (ie. ad blocking). All in all a bit too bloated for me.

    5 votes
  3. [2]
    KehrBehr
    Link
    Are these types of apps (Anker, Hermit) just using Android's System Web View or whatever? So any privacy protection you have via whatever browser you're using is ignored, right?

    Are these types of apps (Anker, Hermit) just using Android's System Web View or whatever? So any privacy protection you have via whatever browser you're using is ignored, right?

    1. geosmin
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Yeah, I just checked for Anker it appears to be using Chrome 66. I was kind of hoping it'd be using something similar to how links are opened in non-browser apps. (I forget what that's called)...

      Yeah, I just checked for Anker it appears to be using Chrome 66. I was kind of hoping it'd be using something similar to how links are opened in non-browser apps. (I forget what that's called)

      That said, Anker handles links nicely. Long pressing any link will open it with your preferred browser or relevant app instead of within Anker. So as long as your not worried about your privacy on ~ you should be fine until a better solution comes along.